What is our teaching on cremation?

In the ministry of the Church, we sometimes encounter questions about the cremation of the body of the deceased. Here I would like to offer some background and clarification of the teaching of the Church.

The practice of cremation is a growing trend. In 2015, the rate of cremations in this country surpassed the rate of burials for the first time ever. Fifty years ago, almost everyone who died in the United States was buried. Now over half of the dead are cremated. The rate of cremation in Texas today is about forty percent.

From prehistoric times, the universal human practice was to bury the body of the deceased in the ground. There were, however, some ancient cultures that practiced cremation, such as in India and among the Aztecs in central Mexico.

From the earliest apostolic times, Christians followed the Jewish practice of burial of the body. The Christian preference for burial over cremation is rooted in our belief in the resurrection of the dead, and it is strengthened by our belief in the sanctification of the body as God’s temple through the Sacrament of Baptism and nourishment by the Eucharist.

While cremation was a common practice in the ancient Roman Empire, Christians did not typically cremate their dead. In times of early persecutions, the bodies of martyrs were sometimes cremated by the Roman authorities and scattered to show contempt for the faith. The catacombs are evidence that the early Christians took great care to show respect to the bodies of the dead and give them an honorable burial.

Even though interment of the body was a nearly universal practice in our Church for centuries, there was no general Church law prohibiting cremation until 1886, when the Vatican’s Holy Office banned the burning of bodies for funeral rites. At that time in the late 19th century, there was a non-Catholic movement in Europe to promote cremation for reasons of public hygiene and conservation of land. The Church objected to that movement because some of those cremation proponents also flagrantly rejected the Christian belief in the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body.

The 1917
Code of Canon Law continued the ban on cremation, forbidding Christian burial to anyone who ordered that their body be cremated. However, in 1963 the Catholic Church began to permit cremation for various reasons, such as lack of burial space, national custom, or to avoid the spread of disease in epidemics. In the 1963 document
Piam et Constantem, the Church clarified that the practice of cremation is not of its nature incompatible with Christianity.

Our current 1983
Code of Canon Law says in Canon 1176: “The Church earnestly recommends that the pious custom of burying the bodies of the deceased be observed; nevertheless, the Church does not prohibit cremation unless it was chosen for reasons contrary to Christian doctrine.” Similarly, the 1992
Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches in paragraph 2301: “The Church permits cremation, provided that it does not demonstrate a denial of faith in the resurrection of the body.”

In 2016, the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued the instruction
Ad resurgendum cum Christo (ARCC), for the purpose of explaining the reasons why the Church prefers the burial of the body and to set out norms pertaining to the disposition of the ashes in the case of cremation. It is a brief and very helpful document, and it can easily be found on the Internet.

The instruction
Ad resurgendum cum Christo reminds us of the basic Catholic teaching that “by death the soul is separated from the body, but in the resurrection God will give incorruptible life to our body, transformed by reunion with our soul” (ARCC, 2). It goes on to say that the Church raises no doctrinal objections to the practice of cremation, “since cremation of the deceased’s body does not affect his or her soul, nor does it prevent God, in his omnipotence, from raising up the deceased body to new life. Thus cremation, in and of itself, objectively negates neither the Christian doctrine of the soul’s immortality nor that of the resurrection of the body” (ARCC, 4). In short, it is not a sin to cremate a human body.

Nevertheless, the instruction reiterates the preference of the Church for the burial of the body. We believe that the body forms part of the identity of the human person. The burial of the body is intended to show esteem toward the deceased loved one and to affirm the great dignity of the human body (ARCC, 3). “Indeed, the human body is inextricably associated with the human person, which acts and is experienced by others through that body” (
Order of Christian Funerals, Appendix 2, no. 411).

The Church offers norms for the proper disposition of the ashes of someone who has been cremated. They must be laid to rest in a sacred place that has been set aside for this purpose, such as in the ground in a cemetery, a mausoleum, a vault, or a columbarium. This allows the family and other members of the Church to come there and pray, remember, and reflect (ARCC, 5). Whenever possible, the place where the vessel of ashes are buried or entombed should be identified with the name of the deceased on some kind of marker, plaque, or stone.

The instruction
Ad resurgendum cum Christo makes it clear that the Church does not permit any of the following practices: keeping the ashes of the departed at home; dividing them among various family members; scattering them in the air, on land, or at sea; or preserving them in mementos, pieces of jewelry, artwork, or other objects (ARCC, 6-7).

While the dividing up of ashes is not permitted by the Catholic Church, it should be noted that the Church does not teach that dividing the ashes means that the person’s soul will never be at rest. The dividing of the ashes is not permitted because it lacks proper reverence for the remains of the deceased.

It sometimes happens that a person has been cremated, and the ashes are kept in someone’s home for a number of years, and eventually the family is unsure what to do with them. In such a case, the family may contact a cemetery, their local pastor, or the diocesan chancellor, to discuss possibilities for the proper and final disposition of the cremated remains.

There are many legitimate reasons why families might choose cremation. The greatest factor is usually the cost. Cremations typically cost less than one-third the price of funerals with burial of the body. Some choose cremation for simplicity or for ecological reasons. In some countries, such as Mexico, land for burial is very scarce. Sometimes cremation is the appropriate choice because of the presence of contagious disease or when the body is severely damaged. Transportation of the remains of the deceased over great distances can also be a practical reason for cremation.

When cremation is chosen, the Church has specific funeral rites that provide for this situation. The ideal is for the cremation of the body to take place after the Funeral Mass. This allows for the use of our beautiful funeral rituals that show profound reverence to the body of the deceased: sprinkling it with holy water, the placing of the pall, the placing of Christian symbols on the coffin, and honoring it with incense.

When circumstances require cremation before the funeral, the liturgy may be celebrated in the presence of the cremated remains. The ashes are present in a sealed, worthy vessel, placed near the altar on a small table or stand. This vessel can either be carried reverently in the entrance procession or placed on this table before the liturgy begins. The lit Paschal Candle is located nearby. The ashes are sprinkled with holy water. In all cases, the cremated remains of the body are to be treated with the same respect given to the human body from which they came.

The Church’s teachings and funeral rites remind us that the body is intended for resurrection and eternal life. Whether our body is buried or cremated at the end of our earthly life, we trust in the words of St. Paul: “Our commonwealth is in Heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power which enables him even to subject all things to himself” (Phil 3:20-21).